Wilting Wings
by vaporeon13204
Summary: We all know about Deepground and the Jenova project, but what other research might Hojo have been up to earlier on in his career? Initially set about 35 years prior to the events of FF7. Eventually OC/Vincent .
1. Chapter 1

Hello, readers! ^_^ For those of you who are wondering, yes, I still plan on continuing _Welcome to Twilight_, but for now I needed a small break and decided to try something different. If you don't know anything about Crisis Core, FF7, Advent Children, or Dirge of Cerberus, then you may wish to look them up at some point during this fic. XD This starts out 35 years before the events of FF7.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Final Fantasy VII. I do own Mayla though. ;D

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Mayla awoke from her forced sleep with a cry, tears welling up in her eyes from the pain. Although heavily drugged- presumably with sedatives and what she guessed to be feeble attempts at painkillers- a good portion of her back felt like it was on fire. She attempted to turn to see just what had been done to her, but even the smallest movement of her neck and torso sent another sharp stab of pain down her back, causing her to let out a small gasp and immediately halt her feeble attempt. Her long ebony locks of hair fell about her pale face as she hung her head in defeat, tears of pain streaming down from her golden eyes. This was just another day in Hojo's lab.

After a few minutes of silent tears, the young girl lifted her head up slowly and turned it about just enough to see the room she was in. She was lying on a bed in a small white room that held a few computers and monitoring equipment, several of which were currently attached to her. She had been laid on her stomach to let her back heal from whatever they did to her, to which she was grateful. With as much as it hurt right now she couldn't imagine how it would have felt had she been _laying_ on it. Satisfied with having seen the room, she laid her head carefully back down on her pillow and decided to enjoy the peace while it lasted, even if her back still felt like it was on fire.

It didn't last very long. "Ah, you're awake!" a nurse exclaimed in mild surprise as she entered the room. She walked briskly over to the machines next to Mayla's bedside, quickly scanning over the data presented. "Well, you seem to be recovering quite well from the surgery. Can you move them yet?"

"Move what?" the teen replied groggily, still very much under the effect of whatever sedatives had been given her. It didn't even register to her tired mind yet that "them" could possibly be a source of concern to her.

"Ah, don't worry dear. I'll go get Dr. Hojo so that he can check over the results for himself."

Mayla groaned into her pillow as the nurse walked away. He was the _last_ person that she wanted to see right now. He was creepy as hell, had a hole where his heart should be, and usually just ended up causing her pain every time she saw him. Like whatever they did to her back for example. She figured it had to be fairly major, for Hojo had been "prepping" her with special injections and stuff for a while now. _Fun times. Rather makes you miss just being an orphan on the street really. At least then all I had to worry about was finding my next meal…_

Mayla's parents had died in a car accident back when she was eight, leaving her to fend for herself on the streets. When she was about twelve, Hojo found her and offered to take her to a nice safe place where she would always be guaranteed a meal. She didn't realize that the scientist had simply been looking for a new research specimen for his twisted experiments until it was much too late. It had taken a good part of the past four years since him to break her spirit, but by this point she was mostly tamed. Mostly.

"Ah, splendid, it's still alive!" the familiar nasally voice of Hojo said as he entered the room. Yeah, _that_ was a comforting thing to hear. He walked up next to her, looking her over and writing down notes on a pad of paper while Mayla just lay there silent and still. After writing for about half a minute, he reached out with one hand and pulled up none to gently on something that was attached to her back. She let out a cry of both surprise and pain that was muffled by her pillow, but Hojo simply continued his examination as if he hadn't heard a thing. By the time he had finished his physical examination, Mayla had counted four objects attached to her back from the surgery. What they were however she still had no clue. What she wouldn't give for a mirror right now…

"Try moving them," Hojo ordered, his gaze cold but expectant.

"Can I ask what exactly I'm supposed to be moving?" Mayla replied, a sarcastic edge to her question.

"Just do it," the scientist snapped back, not in the mood to deal with his specimen's attitude at the moment. She'd probably suffer for that later.

Mayla silenced herself in defeat and decided to do as he said. After a moment's concentration she was able to move whatever was on her back about an inch before stopping due to the sharp pain it caused. It seemed that they still needed a lot more time to heal, whatever _they_ were.

Hojo jotted down a few more notes before leaving the room without another word. A few minutes after the nurse from before returned. "Can I get you anything dear?" she asked kindly, knowing that the poor girl must be in a lot of pain right now.

"Yeah," Mayla replied right away. "Could I get a mirror?"

The nurse nodded, pulling one out of a nearby drawer and handing it to her. The ebony-haired teen gave the nurse a silent thanks as she accepted the mirror from her and held it up to see what was on her back. She nearly let out a scream at what she saw.

Grafted into her back were two sets of very large butterfly wings.

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Review please and let me know what you think! ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

I hope that you all enjoyed that first chapter. Now onto chapter 2! ^_^ (And don't worry, the chapters will get longer than this as the story progresses.)

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Two Months Later

Mayla stood before a full-length mirror, her wings motionless behind her. A few days after the initial surgery her body had started to show signs of rejection of the new appendages, and Hojo had to put her through many special "treatments" before that had stopped. They worked well enough for the wings, but they had made her seriously ill in the meantime. Now however her wings seemed to be fully functional and she only occasionally felt illness from the injections. Well, from the old injections anyways.

She raised her wings behind her and flapped them a little bit, admiring their iridescent colors. Although they were solid black naturally, in the light they shimmered a brilliant royal blue. She had also found that the flesh was a lot more durable than it looked- almost leather-like but not quite. This made sense if she was every supposed to use them for flight, for she doubted that normal butterfly wings would be able to support human weight. They were also a bit different from normal butterfly wings in the fact that they could fold down flat against her back, and were otherwise quite pliable. The two wings on her upper back were fairly large and when stretched out to the side reached about arms' length. The two lower ones were less than half the size of the upper ones, and she suspected their purpose to be mainly for extra support in flight.

One major downfall to her new appendages was that all of her clothes had to be backless now. How she would survive outside in the winter was beyond her. _Then again, I guess there's no need to worry about that. I haven't been outside in four years now, so I doubt that I'll be seeing it again anytime soon._

Mayla flapped her larger upper wings behind her in a thoughtful manner before deciding to try something. _Well, now that my back's healed, I might as well see if these things work. _She flapped all four wings fast and hard, startling herself when she gained a few inches of lift off of the ground. She hadn't quite figured out how to balance in the air though and stumbled forward into her mirror. "Ow…" she muttered, rubbing her forehead where she had smacked into the glass. _Ok, that was smart. Perhaps I should try this in a more open area next time. _

She heard footsteps approaching down the hall and quickly retreated to her bed. If Hojo knew that his she had already recovered from his latest series of injections who knows what he would be ready to put her through next. Fortunately however her worries proved unnecessary, for it was just one of the lab techs that entered the room. "Why hello there," he greeted kindly, holding a small box with one hand while brushing his dirty blond locks out of his eyes with the other. "I'm just here to take a blood-sample."

Mayla merely nodded, not a hint of worry in her now mako tinted golden eyes. Blood draws were among the _least_ intrusive tests performed here, so she didn't mind them at all. She adjusted herself so that she was sitting Indian-style on the bed, and lazily stuck out her pale left arm so that the tech could do his work.

The tech was mildly surprised by her nonchalant attitude, but sat down on the bed and quickly prepped the area. "So, feeling better today?" he asked, attempting to make small-talk. He received a "mhmm" for a reply while the teen merely watched what he did with disinterest. After he had finished, he put away his equipment and made to leave. Before opening the door however, he turned and made this remark, "You know, I was told about your wings before, but I have to admit they are quite a remarkable sight in person."

"Uh, thanks," Mayla replied, not sure whether she should be happy about the compliment or not, but blushing nonetheless as he left.

oooooooooooooooooo

"Fly," commanded the nasally voice, its greasy-haired owner not looking up from his notepad. They were currently in a fairly wide and tall room, with Mayla having wires attached to different parts of her back that sent a continual data feed to the computers. She also had a chain attached to one of her legs should she try any sort of escape.

"How about _you_ fly," she muttered bitterly under her breath, wishing more than anything to take that pen from him and stab it into his eye. He glanced up from his paper as if he hadn't heard her, waiting expectantly for her to start. Although thoroughly annoyed, she decided to comply and began flapping her wings. It was a lot more challenging with all of the wires in the way, but after a few seconds she was able to get herself hovering a few feet above the ground.

"Excellent!" Hojo exclaimed, pleased with his experiment's success. He began jotting down notes and taking careful readings from the data feed. Mayla only managed to stay up for about a minute however before having to land, for her muscles were not yet accustomed to being used that way. "Did I tell you to come back down yet? Get back in the air!"

"How about you do 200 push-ups instead?" Mayla responded in between pants, her wings hanging limp by her side.

"Wrong answer," Hojo sneered, pressing a button that sent her and electrical shock through one of the wires. Not at all fazed by her responding death glare, he said, "Fly, now."

ooooooooooooooooooo

That night Mayla collapsed onto her bed, thoroughly exhausted and extremely sore from the day. She could barely move her wings at the moment and knew that tomorrow her back would probably be cramping so bad that she wouldn't be able to move. Not that that would make a difference in Hojo's plans. _This is ridiculous,_ she thought to herself, eyes glassy and unseeing, their mako glow much more noticeable in the dark room. _I have to get out of here. _She had thought out hundreds of escape plans over the years, but had never had even the least success in trying to leave the building. Now however, Hojo may have just unthinkingly given her _exactly_ what she needed.

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R&R! ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

Mayla's plan comes to into action! But does it turn out as she had planned? Read and find out! ;D

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Three Weeks Later

Mayla had thought out her escape plan thoroughly over the past few weeks and had been preparing herself accordingly. What she had in mind was quite simple, but also had a huge potential to back-fire on her. If things should go awry, she had a backup plan that was quite a bit reckless, but perhaps just enough so to work. However, should both of her plans fail, she would most likely never see the light of day again. Nevertheless, it was worth the chance though if she could get out of this lab.

Today would be the perfect day. Hojo hadn't done anything to her recently, so she was currently at full health, which was definitely a good thing when you were trying to escape. At the moment she was waiting patiently by her door, her wings folded down behind her as she leaned against the wall. A nurse was due in any time to check on her, and that would be when she could put her plan into action.

_Clip-clop clip-clop. _The sound of the heels walking down the hallway could be heard from a long distance off with the teen's sensitive ears. Her muscles contracted, ready to spring when the time came. In her hand she held a piece of cloth that she had torn from her bed sheets earlier that day. _Clip-clop clip-clop. _The steps were close now.

The handle turned as the nurse unlocked the door and entered shortly after. "Hello. I'm here to-" Before she could get any further into her sentence, Mayla had stuffed the cloth into her mouth to silence her and pulled her forcefully into the room. Being much stronger than the nurse due to all of her "enhancements," she was able to strip the woman of her coat and shoes with ease before binding her with another strip of cloth she had prepared earlier.

"Sorry, nothing against you personally," Mayla said quietly as she put on the lab coat and shoes, checking the pocket to make sure that she had a cardkey on her. "Someone will find you in here soon enough." The nurse struggle against the bindings in the corner as Mayla exited the room and closed the door behind her.

_And now everything's up to fate, _she thought to herself as she walked briskly down the hall towards the elevators. The lab coat did a perfect job at hiding her wings, so long as she was careful not to move them and keep them pressed flat against her back. Mayla made it to the elevator without incident and pressed the button to go down to the first floor.

_Somehow this is almost too easy, _she thought to herself, her heart racing as she waited impatiently for the elevator to finish its decent. It was truly a ridiculously tall building. Around floor 45 the elevator stopped and a few more people came on to join her. _Oh great, Turks, _she thought to herself, recognizing the crisp suits. _Don't panic, just act cool. If I act suspicious then I'll be caught for sure._

They had just gotten down to floor 28 when all of the sudden the alarms went off. _Damn, that didn't take long,_ Mayla thought to herself irritably, trying her best to look confused as to what was going on and not show her fear. "_Warning. Lab specimen 150862 has escaped from its room. Look for a 16 year old female with black hair wearing a lab coat and seize her immediately._"

_Oh ****, _she thought to herself as the four Turks in the elevator with her suddenly turned their gaze onto her. _I'm not going down without a fight! _As they reached to grab her she leapt up into the air, sending flying kicks their way. The scuffle ensued for a few seconds until the elevator opened at floor 23. Mayla took this opportunity to dash out of the elevator, shoving the people out of the way who were trying to get on and being closely pursued by the Turks. She kicked off the shoes and tore off the lab coat as she ran, trying to take many turns to both lose the Turks and keep their fire off of her. Meanwhile she looked about desperately for a window. _Come on, there's got to be one __somewhere__! Ah, there! _After turning another corner she spotted a window dead ahead of her and set off for it at a full sprint. Multiple shots fired from behind her as her pursuers turned the corner as well. She braced herself for impact as she approached the window, her final chance for escape. Shards of glass tore through her skin as she entered into the outside air, but she didn't care at the moment. She quickly spread her wings and took flight, finally free for the first time in four years!

_Bang! _One of the Turk's bullets finally found their mark and tore through the tender flesh on her upper left wing. She let out a cry of pain as blood stained the injured appendage, and she quickly began to lose altitude. _Bang! _Another bullet hit her in her right one and she plummeted down to the earth below, landing not so softly on a parked car.

She lay in the dented roof of the car, gasping for breath as several of her ribs had broken upon impact. Her mind screamed at her body to move and get away while she had the chance, but she was trapped by the metal folding around her person and unable to move. By the time Shinra employees came out to extract her she had already blacked out from pain and loss of blood.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"_Such a troublesome experiment. Not worth the effort for the failure that she is." _Mayla couldn't open her eyes, and only barely hung on to conscious. _"I've gotten all of the data that I need from her for now. I might as well just put her away and store her for later use." _Put her away? What was that supposed to mean? And why did it sound like she was listening to him through water? Slowly, Mayla opened an eye, finding that she had been placed into some kind of giant glass tube filled with liquid. She had on an oxygen mask so that she could breathe, and through the glass she could see Hojo at a control panel, talking to some other scientist.

The other scientist noticed her gaze and said, "Ah, she's awake," in a somewhat surprised tone.

"Not for long she isn't," Hojo replied, typing in a few commands to the computer. "There. That'll put her out. Now let's go take care of our other business shall we?"

Mayla felt a burning liquid enter her veins from an IV that she hadn't previously noticed as the two scientists left the room. The last thing she saw was a computer screen urgently reporting an error of some kind before she blacked out.

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Only chapter 3 and we've already reached a critical turning point in the story. XD Review please! ^^


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

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Forty Years Later

_Beep. Beep. Beep. _A cool tingling sensation in her arm slowly brought Mayla back to consciousness. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but she could hear the sound of movement all around her, along with what sounded like guns cocking. _That doesn't sound so good, _she thought groggily to herself, not quite wanting to open her eyes yet and see what was awaiting her. However, the medicine going into her arm was doing a good job of waking her up quickly, so it wasn't more than a minute before she finally opened her golden eyes.

The bright light made her nearly shut them again, but she squinted through to see that she was in the same tank as before. However, she was sounded by a fairly large group of people with guns wearing a uniform that she didn't recognize, and she was _definitely_ not in Hojo's lab. She blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted before looking around. It was a fairly large and well lit room, and off to the side was a black-haired man with a small beard wearing a blue suit. "At ease, men," he commanded, and the soldiers all put their guns down by their side. They still held them at the ready though. _He must be their leader, _Mayla thought dully to herself, somewhat anxious to know where she was and what was going on.

"I'm going to let you out of that tank now, alright?" the man said to her with a kind smile. "Don't be alarmed, and try not to do anything rash." The winged girl simply nodded and watched as the man typed in a few commands to the computer. Within seconds, the liquid from the tank began to drain away. Mayla staggered and fell back against the glass, her muscles weak from the medication and disuse. Regardless of her initial stumble, she righted herself again fairly quickly and took off her oxygen mask, also gladly removing the IV from her arm.

It was at this point that she finally noticed something very important. She wasn't wearing any clothes. Mayla let out a small scream of surprise, embarrassment, and dismay before quickly trying to cover herself with her hands and wings. Her face turned a deep crimson as she sank down to the bottom of the container in an attempt to further cover and diminish herself.

The man approached the now open tank and silently offered her his suit jacket to cover up with, which she gladly and rather quickly accepted. "Alright men, she seems harmless enough," he told the others behind him. "Go ahead and wait outside while I get this young lady checked up." They all nodded and exited the room as he instructed. "Sorry about that," he said as he turned back to her, smiling kindly once more. "Not all of Hojo's experiments are so harmless, so it was a necessary precaution." He offered his hand to help her out of the tank. "I'm Reeve by the way."

"Mayla," she replied quietly, not looking him in the eye as she accepted his hand to get out of the tank. She was still thoroughly embarrassed about being seen naked by so many people. All of them men at that. "Where am I?"

"You are currently at the WRO headquarters," Reeve replied. She arched an eyebrow at this, but he continued on. "We found you along with several other of Hojo's 'specimens' stored in a hidden underground lab in Midgar. It's a miracle that the place hadn't been destroyed."

"What's the WRO?" Mayla asked slowly, still not really having a clue as to what was going on.

"It stands for World Regenesis Organization. We've been working to rebuild the world after the Meteor incident."

_Meteor? What the heck? _"… Just how long have I been out for?"

"I'm not sure. Let me find out." Reeve walked back over to the computer and began typing away. After a moment he paused, a look of shock flitting across his features for a second before he turned back to her. "According to the data from your tank, you've been sealed in there for about forty years now."

oooooooooooooooooo

_Ring. Ring. _A gloved hand reached down and fetched the cell phone out of its holster. "…Hello?"

"Vincent, it's Reeve. Could you come down to the WRO headquarters? I have something that I wish to speak to you about. I already called the others and they should be here soon."

There was a brief silence before the scarlet cloaked man responded. "I'm on my way." He shut his phone and slid it back into its holster before walking off. He had been to visit Lucrecia again, although he did so a lot less often since the incident with Deepground. Still, there was no harm in occasionally paying his respects to the woman he had loved, even if his life had finally moved on now. Reeve's phone call had him concerned though. _What could possibly be so important that he would have to tell us in person rather than over the phone? I guess we'll just have to find out._

ooooooooooooooooooo

"So what's this all about?" Yuffie asked impatiently, her arms crossed in front of her. Nearly all of the former members of Avalanche were currently seated around an oval table (except for Vincent, who was standing in the back and Nanaki who was sitting on the floor), waiting to hear why exactly Reeve had called them together once more.

The blue-clad man cleared his throat before answering her question. "I'm sure you all remember quite well the Deepground incident from two years ago." Everyone nodded silently, waiting to see where this was going. "Naturally after the fact investigations were made to see if Shinra had any other 'surprises' hidden somewhere that could pose as a large threat. Nothing was found- until recently." He paused for a split second before continuing. "While looking through the records of human experiments conducted by Shinra scientists, there were a fairly large number of Hojo's that had suddenly been marked as 'failures' and said nothing more. Originally it was assumed that these subjects had been eliminated, but apparently that was not the case."

"So you found a bunch of botched up humans then," Barret interjected. "What does that have to do with us though? Are they a threat?"

"That's what we've been trying to find out," Reeve replied calmly. "Our current plan of action has simply been to release them one by one and see what happens."

"What kindda #$%*& up plan is _that_?" Cid exclaimed, cigarette nearly falling out of his mouth. "Might as well release a bunch of mini Sephiroths on us!"

"I say just get rid of the things while you can," Yuffie concurred, nodding her head. "There have been enough deaths due to Shinra's creations as it is already."

"These experiments were all prior to the Jenova project," Reeve replied calmly. "I'll admit, our initial reaction was to eliminate them as well, but as three of you here can attest to, not everyone Hojo experimented on turned out for the worse." Nanaki, Cloud, and Vincent stayed silent while Yuffie hung her head guiltily. That had completely slipped her mind.

"So, I take it that you've started letting them out then," Tifa said thoughtfully. "What exactly has happened?"

"We've done four of the 'tamer' looking ones so far. Unfortunately the first three were out of their minds and quite dangerous. They had to be eliminated right away, and I'll admit that it took quite a bit of effort to do so. There were many injuries among the WRO members."

"What about the fourth one?" Vincent asked from his spot in the back of the room.

"She's mentally stable, and as far as we've seen is fairly harmless. We've been keeping a close eye on her just in case, but so far it seems rather unnecessary. Though I'll admit that she was quite a bit shaken to find out how long she had been out for."

"How long?" Yuffie asked curiously.

"Forty years. The girl's actually pretty close to Vincent's age, but she doesn't look a day over twenty."

Cloud decided to finally speak up at this point. "So what exactly is it that you need _us_ here for? I'm sure if you just wanted to fill us in you would have simply called."

Reeve hesitated for a moment. "Well, as I said before, so far we have only released four. The reason that we've halted there is because the others that we found are quite a bit dangerous looking. Frankly, I've asked you here for your help. Several of my men nearly died with just the first three, and I don't think they could handle some of the others by themselves. Once again, although it might be wiser just to dispose of them before hand, there is still the chance that some of these creatures are still sentient and capable of living out a fairly normal life outside of a lab."

"So, you want us as executioners then," Vincent said flatly.

"If you want to put it that way, but really just more as back-up in case things go… awry."

oooooooooooooooooo

_Forty years… Forty flippin years. What the hell, how can I be fifty-six already! _Mayla thought to herself, moaning internally. Reeve had provided her with a small and cozy room in the headquarters (though she didn't miss the fact that there was small camera watching from the corner). She had to admit though that it was a giant improvement from Hojo's lab. She hadn't realized how much she had grown to despise the color white after all that time. The butterfly girl had been quite a bit surprised to see herself in the mirror too. She hadn't aged much during her forty year sleep, but her body did appear to be that of about a twenty year old now. _Ok, obviously whatever Hojo did to me has slowed down my aging. So, forty years to ages four years, that's about ten per year. So, for my body to become like a 60 year old will take another… four hundred years. Damn! I'm gunna be __old__! Provided I die of natural causes anyway,_ she amended to herself dryly. She folded her wings around her and took a good look at them. Although long since healed, you could still see the scars from the bullet holes if you looked closely enough. _Damn Turks and their guns. Such a trigger-happy lot they are…_

The ebony-haired woman sighed and lay back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. _I'm going to have a __lot__ to catch up on…_


	5. Chapter 5

I'm trying to keep the character's personalities as close to canon as possible, but don't shoot me if I mess up. ^_^; Hope you enjoy this chapter! =D

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"So, where're we stayin?" Yuffie asked, leaning back in her seat with her hands behind her head. The former Avalanche members had all agreed to help out the WRO, mainly to prevent any new catastrophes from happening. They had all been through enough as it was already.

"I've already had rooms prepared for you guys," Reeve said with a smile as he stood up from the table. "Just follow me."

The group followed Reeve out of the room, taking the opportunity to catch up with each other as they walked. After all, most of them had their own separate lives by now and it wasn't very often that they were all in the same place like this. Vincent trailed in the back of the group mulling over everything that Reeve had just told them in the meeting. He had been to the WRO headquarters many times before, so he didn't exactly need the tour. _Failed experiments… It's not like Hojo to save something that he considers a failure. Not unless he was planning to do more with them later. Did he simply forget about them with the start of the Jenova project? _

Vincent was so deeply absorbed by his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the Wutai ninja trying to get his attention. "_Hello!_ Earth to Vincent!" Yuffie shouted, waving a hand in front of his face.

Vincent blinked a few times before looking down at her. "Yes?"

Yuffie sighed in exasperation, hanging her head dramatically. "Honestly, Vincent, you're just _hopeless_. I can barely ever get more than two words outta ya!"

"Sorry," he replied with a wry smile. She gave up at this point and waved him off as she went to go talk with Tifa.

"She can be quite a handful at times," Cloud said jokingly as he dropped back to walk by Vincent. The cloaked man nodded in agreement picking up his pace ever so slightly so that they didn't fall _too_ far behind. "You seem even more pensive than usual. What's up?"

"Something just doesn't seem right about this whole thing," Vincent replied, his usual stern look returning. "I have a bad feeling about this."

This time it was Cloud who nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. I wasn't under the impression that Hojo saved much. I-"

Cloud was interrupted by Barret calling them from up ahead. "Yo, Spiky, Vincent, hurry up! We're growing old waiting for you guys!" Even with the picked up pace, it seemed that the two had fallen quite a distance behind the rest during their conversation.

"Ah, sorry," Cloud replied. He turned back to Vincent and quietly said, "I guess we can talk about this more later," before jogging up to the group.

Vincent smirked ever so slightly, but made no effort to pick up his pace. "Coming."

oooooooooooooooooooo

Reeve took them all on a brief tour of the headquarters before showing them to their rooms. Although big, it definitely wasn't as big as the Shinra building had once been. After being shown their rooms, most of the group went down to the cafeteria to have dinner together. Vincent however declined and stayed behind to talk to Reeve alone for a moment.

"Where are you keeping the girl from the fourth tank that you opened?" he asked once he was sure that the others were indeed out of earshot.

"She's in a room on the third floor. Why do you ask?"

"I wish to speak to her," he replied simply. "I think we might be able to find out more from her."

Reeve shrugged ever so slightly. "Well, good luck with that. She seems nice enough, but she hasn't said much in the way of answering questions." He pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to Vincent. "Room 346. Let me know if you find out anything." Vincent nodded lightly before walking off.

_Well, this should certainly be interesting._

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Mayla sat curled up on her bed, rather bored really. She hadn't seen anyone at all today besides the person who had brought her breakfast and lunch. Not that she really minded though. In the back of her mind she almost half-expected an older version of Hojo to suddenly show up and take her away again. She shuddered at the thought. A knock on the door made her jump ever so slightly, but she quickly calmed down. "Come in," she replied, reminding herself that she was no longer in a Shinra lab.

Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the man who entered her room, not out of fear, but out of awe. His hair was long and unruly, while at the same time blacker than the darkest night. His skin in contrast was quite pale, and his eyes were a piercing red. He wore black leather clothing along with a tattered red cape, golden pointed boots, and a golden clawed gauntlet. While most might have found his appearance to be rather frightful, Mayla thought he was absolutely _breathtaking_. "Um, may I help you?" she asked meekly, guessing that he wasn't with the WRO, even though he had the key to her room.

Vincent nodded and shut the door behind him, taking in Mayla's appearance in a quick glance. Her skin and hair color were not too different from his own, but her eyes were a vibrant golden color (ever so slightly tinted with mako), and on her back were what appeared to be two pairs of butterfly wings. Odd. She was also quite thin and frail looking, as if she hadn't been properly fed in a while. _Then again, she spent forty years in a tank, so that's most likely the case. _He sat down in a chair near the bed, not taking his eyes off of the girl. "I heard you were worked on by Hojo. I assume that's where you got your wings."

Mayla nodded ever so slightly, averting her gaze from the stranger and wrapping the mentioned appendages around herself. "Are you with Reeve?" she asked quietly, glancing back at him. It almost seemed as if he was trying to look _through_ her, which was rather unsettling really. _Even despite the creepy gaze, this guy's hot as hell. I wonder if he knows how old I really am. Not that it would really make a difference. It's not like anyone could possibly ever like a freak like me anyway. What the hell am I thinking? I just MET the guy! _She shook her head as if to clear her mind of her inner ramblings.

"Sort of," Vincent replied. "We've known each other for a few years now."

"Oh. Ok."

The two were silent for about a minute after, each lost in their own thoughts. "I'm Vincent by the way."

"Mayla," the butterfly woman replied with a slight blush. _Sheesh, even his name is hot. It seems my body hasn't gotten over its teenage hormones yet. Damn it._

"Do you know what exactly Hojo was trying to do with you?" asked the former Turk, trying to keep the conversation going.

"I was a… prototype," she answered truthfully, eyes cast down on the floor. "I'm not exactly sure of all the details, but I believe that they were trying to find a way to create winged SOLDIERs. After all, it's hard to fight an enemy that can fight both on the ground and in the air."

Vincent arched an eyebrow at this. "With butterfly wings?"

Mayla couldn't help but laugh. That really did sound absurd. "Yeah, like I said, I was the prototype. I've always just sort of assumed that these things were easier to produce in the lab than bird wings. I don't imagine making all of those feathers would be a very easy feat."

Vincent nodded lightly. Her theory made sense. "Why were you sealed away then? It looks as if your wings were a success."

Mayla's wings twitched ever so slightly. "I… tried to escape. Things didn't end too well." She could almost feel the pain still everywhere that she had been injured. After all, to her mind it seemed like it was only a few days ago. "The last thing I remember is Hojo declaring me a failure and locking me away. When I next woke up I was here."

Vincent felt rather sorry for the girl, and in reality could empathize with her to a large degree. After all, he himself had just awaken from a thirty sleep only five years ago. The difference was that his sleep was self induced to escape from his misery. "I'm sorry," Vincent replied, finally tearing his gaze away from the girl as he stood up. "Thank you for your time."

"W-wait!" Mayla called out to him as he headed for the door. Vincent paused and turned back to face her. "I've, uh, been out for a really long time now. Would you mind telling me what's been going on in the world recently? I heard something about a meteor?" Although she really _did_ want to know what all had happened recently, in reality the reason that she had stopped him was because she didn't want him to leave yet. She didn't know why, but she really wanted to know more about this stranger before her. And no, it wasn't just because he was hot- although that didn't hurt.

Vincent looked at her contemplatively for a few seconds before sitting back down in the seat, deciding to grant her request. After all, he was one of the ones who had witnessed everything in person and knew much better than any media source what had really happened.

oooooooooooooooooooo

The two talked for several hours, Vincent telling her of their tale while Mayla asked questions here and there. By the end she had switched to sitting Indian-style on the bed, her wings flapping slowly and lightly behind her as she listened on in fascination. "Wow," she remarked when he had finished. "I suppose me being unconscious through all of that wasn't such a bad thing after all." She happened to glance over at a clock on the wall and saw the obscene time of night that it was- or rather morning. "Oh my gosh, I didn't realize I had kept you so late! I'm so sorry about that!" Mayla hadn't ever had any meaningful conversation with anyone since her parents had died, so she hadn't noticed how long they had been talking for.

Vincent shook his head with a small smile. "It's alright, really," he replied, standing up once more. While being very detailed about all that had happened, he had been careful not to shed more light on his own past than was necessary. However, he _did_ have to tell her a little bit about his past when talking about Deepground, for his relationship with Chaos played a major role there. "I guess I'll be going now."

"Will I, um, see you again?" Mayla asked shyly as Vincent opened the door. He looked over at her a nodded once. Relieved, the winged woman quietly replied with, "Good night, Vincent."

"Good night." The door closed quietly and he was gone.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Hey, Vince, where were ya last night?" Cid asked as the caped man approached the table for breakfast. "Ya never showed up for dinna."

Vincent chose not to respond and simply sat down at the table with his food tray. Meanwhile Barret was asking Tifa how Marlene was doing. "I called Shelke just this morning. She said that both Marlene and Denzel were doing just fine," Tifa replied with a smile. "I was glad that she agreed to stay behind with the kids. I just feel a lot better having someone there with them really."

Yuffie meanwhile was busy talking Cloud's ear off about… well, something anyway. "Isn't that just the _stupidest_ thing you've ever heard? I mean really now, who _does_ that crap anymore? So, as I was saying,…"

_Poor Cloud. I've been there before,_ Vincent thought to himself, silently taking a bite of his food. At this point Reeve joined the table as well, and after a brief greeting to everyone he sat down next to Cid and took up conversation with the pilot.

"You didn't return to the room until early this morning," Nanaki stated matter-of-factly, padding up to Vincent from behind. Since the great cat didn't exactly need a bed, he had been assigned to share a room with Vincent. "Mind if I ask what you were up to?"

"Just doing a little investigating," he replied back coolly before taking another bite.

"Find out anything?"

"Not much."

"I see."

The conversation pretty much died there, as neither of the two were generally very big talkers. Actually, last night was probably the most that Vincent had spoken in a _really_ long time. It was rather uncharacteristic of him to provide so much if the conversation, but perhaps that was simply because he was telling a story. And quite a long one it was at that.

oooooooooooooooooooo

After breakfast, Reeve announced to the group that they were going to open another tank this afternoon. _So soon? _Vincent had thought to himself. _Well, I suppose it's better to get this over with quickly. _

Once the others had gone their separate ways, Reeve pulled Vincent off to the side. "So, did you find out anything?"

"Not much. Mainly just that she was a prototype to some kind of 'winged' SOLDIER project. My guess however is that with the discovery of Jenova, most of the other research that Shinra had been performing was put on hold, hence the leftover test subjects in tanks that you've found."

"Makes sense," Reeve concurred with a nod. "Let's just hope that we can possibly find out more from the next subject we let out. If he's anything like the first three though, then that won't be happening."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

Mayla had hardly been able to sleep last night. She kept imagining all that Vincent had told her and almost living it in her mind. _Jenova, Sephiroth, Nibelheim, Meteor, Geostima, Deepground… So much in so little time. I wonder, if not for Jenova, would I have ended up like those Deepground soldiers? _She shuddered at the thought. _I don't think I want to know. At least Hojo is no longer alive. Got what he deserved really. _It still boggled her mind to find out that he had turned himself into a monster, experimenting on his own body with the Jenova cells. Then again, knowing Hojo she shouldn't really have been surprised. Still…

When she wasn't thinking of all these things, she found that her thoughts often drifted to Vincent himself. _Such a mysterious guy. There's still so much about him that I don't know. _She would have asked more about him personally, but considering how much he was already willing to share with her, she didn't want to push her limits. Perhaps someday he would tell her more about how exactly he had acquired the Chaos gene and such. However, if he didn't want to share then she wouldn't push him into it.

Around one in the afternoon a strong sense of foreboding came over Mayla, though she had no idea why. All she knew was that something bad was getting ready to happen soon. What it was though she had no idea.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Ready?" Reeve asked his men. They all stood with their guns pointed at a new tank in the middle of the room, nodding in acknowledgement to their commander's question. Reeve himself was by the control panel ready to release the next subject while the others stood in the background, weapons ready to be drawn and used should they be needed.

"Alright then, here we go." He entered the command for release into the computer.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

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Review please! ^_^


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you all very much for your reviews! ^_^ On to chapter 6!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Final Fantasy VII. I do own Mayla though. ;D

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A bomb may as well have gone in the room. One second they all watched as the creature in the tank opened its eyes, and the next there was an explosion of glass and fluid flying through the air. Once the scene cleared, there stood in the middle of the room a creature that appeared to at one time be human. Now however it looked far closer to one of the monsters one might encounter in the wilderness. It currently made no move to attack anyone, but it still had a dangerous look in its eyes.

The WRO members recovered quickly from the shock and surprise the creature's exit and locked their sights onto it. Reeve meanwhile cleared his throat and decided to attempt speaking to it. "We don't wish to hurt you, and will not fight unless you give us reason to," he said calmly and slowly. "Can you understand what I am saying?"

The creature gave no indication of having heard or understood what Reeve said. Instead, it scanned the room hungrily and paused when its eyes landed one of the WRO members who had been badly cut by the flying glass shards. Its nostrils flared, and without any other warning it leapt at the man with inhuman speed. The other soldiers opened fire on the creature and the targeted soldier let out a yell of both surprise and pain as the creature's body crashed into his own.

The gunfire prevented the creature from doing any more damage to the man, and it let out a howl of pain as the first of the bullets entered its flesh. It took a couple more rounds of ammunition before the beat had been silenced.

The entire transaction from start to finish took less than a minute.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"I guess you guys can see now why I called you all here as back-up," Reeve remarked after all of the soldiers had gone either to the infirmary or to resume their normal duties. "It's a pretty dangerous task."

"_There's_ an understatement!" Yuffie replied. "That thing was so fast you could barely see it move! It was pretty wild actually. Good thing no one was killed."

"I found the whole thing to be incredibly sad really," Tifa remarked. "I don't want to imagine what these people have been through to end up they way that they are now."

"Unfortunately we can't go back and change the past. What's done is done and we just need to move on," Reeve replied on a somber manner. Even with his past affiliation with Shinra this wasn't an easy job for him. "Now if you guys would excuse me, I'm going to go check on the girl."

ooooooooooooooooooo

Mayla blushed ever so slightly when Reeve entered the room, still embarrassed that he had seen her naked. "Hello," she greeted quietly, only barely looking at him.

"Good afternoon," Reeve replied with a smile, closing the door behind him and taking a seat near her. "Have you been enjoying your stay here?"

She gave a small nod along with an, "Mhm." What else was she supposed to say? _Yeah, it's been just peachy being locked up in a room all day with no one to talk to and having a surveillance camera on me. _Sure, still a step up from the lab, but it wasn't exactly a day at the beach.

"Well, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that we're planning on letting you out of this room soon." This caught her attention right away and she finally looked Reeve in the face for the first time since he had entered the room, eyes full of hope. "You'll be allowed to wander around the headquarters, provided that you are accompanied by an escort at all times."

The excitement in her expression faltered a little at this, but she was still mostly happy. _I was hoping that I was finally being set free, but oh well. Perhaps sometime soon then. At least I'll be able to get out of this room._

"I do have some more questions for you if you don't mind though." Mayla's smile quickly faded, and she responded with a hesitant nod, choosing to stay silent. _Great, more questions about Hojo. Can't we just try to forget about him and move on? I hate having to think about that guy._

"What else did Hojo do to you besides the wings? You, um, had quite a few scars on your body that didn't seem related to that." Mayla blushed again and simply shrugged. Reeve decided to try a different approach. "Vincent mentioned that you called yourself a prototype for winged SOLDIERs. Do you think that Hojo went so far as to make you like a SOLDIER?" Again, she shrugged. "Well, are you stronger and faster than before?" Mayla hesitated for a second before responding with a nod.

_Ok, so he probably did then. *sigh* This would be so much easier if she would actually __talk__, _Reeve thought to himself. _How Vincent got anything out of her is beyond me… _"Well, Mayla, did you ever come into contact with any of Hojo's other test subjects?" She shook her head. "Ever overhear him talk about his other experiments?" Again, she shook her head. _Ok, this is getting us nowhere. _Reeve stood up from his chair and stretched. "Well, thank you for your time then. Someone will be by later to let you out for dinner."

Mayla practically beamed at this news. "Thank you," she said quietly to him as he opened the door. He gave a nod of acknowledgement in reply before he left.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Near dinner time, Reeve found Vincent standing around outside the building. "Hey, Vincent, would you mind escorting Mayla to the cafeteria?" he asked as he dropped the room key into his friend's hand. "I've decided to allow her a little bit of supervised freedom since she has yet to show any odd behavior."

"Any reason in particular you sought _me_ out?" Vincent asked, looking down at the key in his hand with an ever so slightly bemused expression on his face.

Reeve shrugged lightly. "It'll be her first time out of the room since we put her there, so I figured it might be more comforting to have a familiar face for an escort."

Vincent would have asked why Reeve didn't do it then since she had known him longer, but decided that he didn't care enough to voice the question. He obviously had his reasons. The former Turk gave a small nod before walking back inside and heading for Mayla's room. _Well, I guess we'll be meeting again sooner than I thought._

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Mayla was both very surprised and extremely happy when she saw that it was Vincent who had come to pick her up. "Vincent!" she cried out with joy when he opened the door, her wings fluttering lightly behind her. _Oh snap, that was loud. _She quickly worked to calm herself down a bit before saying, "Good to see you again," with a normal amount of energy. "I wasn't expecting you to be my escort." Her wings continued to flutter ever so slightly behind her, betraying her excitement. _Traitors… Stop moving already! _She made a conscious effort to still them.

Vincent couldn't help but give a small smile at seeing her reaction. "Reeve put me up to it," he replied, holding the door open for her. The winged woman smiled and followed him out the door.

When the two of them reached the cafeteria, the place was fairly full. Feeling slightly out of place amongst so many people, Mayla flattened her wings down against her back as they walked through. That didn't stop her from receiving many curious glances however. _I guess I'd better get used to this. These things aren't exactly "subtle". _She got herself a fairly small plate of food, and Vincent did the same. "So, where should we sit?"she asked, looking around at the crowded room.

"This way," Vincent replied, leading the way through the crowd. Mayla followed closely behind him until they reached a table that was already pretty full of people. From the descriptions that Vincent had given her the previous night, she recognized them all to be the former members of Avalanche.

"So, Vince, who's _this_ pretty young woman ya have here?" a man with short blond hair asked, a grin on his face. She guessed him to be Cid, as he definitely looked the part of a pilot.

"I'm Mayla," she replied shyly, standing somewhat behind Vincent.

"Nice to meet ya, May!" a girl with short black hair said enthusiastically (this must have been Yuffie). "Why don't ya sit down with us? We're a lot more fun than Mr. Broody Silent Guy that you're with right now. I'm Yuffie by the way."

_Ah, my guess was right, _she thought to herself as she gave Yuffie a nod and went to sit down next to her. "Whoa, what are _those_?" Up to this point Mayla still had her wings pressed flat against her back. Now that she was sitting down right next to the ninja however, they were plainly visible to her. "Oh! You're that experiment, aren't ya." She didn't mean for that to come out as bad as it did.

"Yuffie!" a woman with long black hair reprimanded.

"Oops. Sorry, that didn't sound as bad in my head."

"No, it's alright," Mayla replied with a small smile. "I know you didn't mean anything by it." In her head she added, _It's the truth after all._

"I'm Tifa," the other woman introduced kindly. "It's nice to have you with us, May."

The others around the table all took turns introducing themselves as well before conversation resumed as normal.

"So, May, I heard you were sealed for a while, but how old are you exactly?" Yuffie asked curiously. She had warmed up to the girl pretty quickly.

"Fifty-six," Mayla replied with a blush, poking the food on her plate with a fork.

"Wow, I would have never guessed! You're still not as old and Vincent here though."

This caught Mayla by surprise. "Really? How old is he?"

"That's enough, Yuffie," Vincent interjected, cutting off the ninja before she could reply.

"Ah, don't be so touchy, Vincent," Yuffie replied, slapping him playfully on the back. "Just because you're an old-timer doesn't mean that ya have to act like one!"

oooooooooooooooooooooo

The rest of dinner seemed to go by all too quickly. Mayla had lots of fun listening to and talking with everyone at the table, and she had to laugh when Barret and Cid got into a mini argument over the last piece of pie. Vincent hadn't been exaggerating about their colorful language. In the midst of their arguing Yuffie swiped the piece for herself, and by the time they noticed it was gone she had already eaten it. They all stayed and chatted a while longer before heading off their separate ways.

"Shall I escort you back to your room?" Vincent asked after the others had left.

Mayla let out a small sigh. "I suppose so. The cafeteria is nearly empty now anyway." With that said, the two got up and left the cafeteria.

They walked down the halls in a comfortable silence, Mayla's wings flapping lightly behind her as they headed to her room. "Well, that was fun," she said once they reached her door. "Question though: Why wasn't Reeve there? Wasn't he part of your group?"

"I'm not sure," Vincent answered truthfully as he unlocked the door for her. "He may just being working."

"Ah, I see," the butterfly woman replied thoughtfully. She entered the now open door and plopped down on her bed. "Well, I guess I'll see you guys again tomorrow, right?" she said with a smile, her happiness shining through to her eyes. Vincent smiled slightly and nodded, slowly closing the door. "Night, Vincent."

"Good night," he replied before closing the door fully.

Mayla lay back on her bed with a content sigh. _Wow, that was the most fun I've had in __years__. I didn't expect them all to accept me right away like they did- or rather I didn't expect them to accept me at all. Maybe it's a good thing I couldn't escape from the lab that day… _

Suddenly a strong muscle spasm went through her back, eliciting a gasp of pain. She rolled over quickly and buried her face in her pillow as another spasm passed through, her wings twitching violently behind her. _Forty years later and I'm still suffering side-effects? What the heck? Oh gosh, I think I'm gunna puke. _In spite of her cramping back, she staggered out of bed and headed toward her bathroom, suddenly feeling very dizzy. She let out a small cry as another crippling spasm ripped through her back, and she promptly fell to the floor.

Mayla let out a weak groan. _Make the world stop spinning please… Ugh. _She passed out a few seconds after.

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Cliffie! Dun dun dun! Review please! ^_^


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks to those of you who have reviewed! ^_^ Now on with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Final Fantasy VII. I do own Mayla though. ;D

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Mayla came back to a few minutes later, shivering and covered in sweat. Her wings were still twitching behind her, but not as strongly as before. _Ugh, I hate when I have these episodes. I'd better get back into bed. _She attempted to move, but found that she was too weak to get very far. _Ah crap, this isn't good. _The world started to spin again and she closed her eyes with a small groan. _Damn Hojo…_

She peeped her eyes open once more when she heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching her room. _Oh right. Security camera. Me lying on the floor here can't look too good. _Her door was unlocked and in came several people in white coats whom she guessed to be doctors. She grew mildly annoyed as they began checking her vitals and making sure that she hadn't suffered any injuries in her fall. "I'm fine," Mayla said weakly as they started moving her. _Just lay me on my bed and I'll get over it in a few hours. Honestly, I've endured enough poking and prodding to last me a lifetime. … Go away! _Despite her irritation, she didn't have the strength at the moment to voice her thoughts. Even if she did though it most likely wouldn't make a difference seeing the condition she was currently in. _… Well, on the bright side at least this didn't happen during dinner… _

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The next morning Reeve called the group together to prepare for another tank opening. "Does this one still seem human?" Cloud asked as they headed towards the chamber room.

"More human than the last, yes," Reeve replied. "And also fairly young looking. Let's just hope he's not dangerous."

When they arrived the WRO troops were already in place and ready to go. They looked rather weary, but that was understandable considering how many of the specimens they had unleashed thus far had tried to kill them. Reeve took his place at the computer while the others all got ready as well. "Ok, I'm going to bring him to now."

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

The boy in the tank slowly opened his eyes, but apart from that made no other movements. "I'm going to let you out now, alright?" Reeve said to the boy. He made no response and Reeve entered in another command to the tank that caused it to begin draining of fluid. The boy slumped to the bottom of the tank as the liquid disappeared and made no effort to right himself. The soldiers kept their guns aimed at the boy as Reeve approached, followed by Cloud and the others. "Are you alright?"

Now that they were closer and the tank doors were open, the group could get a better look at the boy. He appeared to be about 14 at the most with bright blue chin-length hair and deep blue eyes. His hands and feet were clawed and on his back were two pair of translucent wings. Actually, only one pair was on his back. The other pair were on either side of his waist and much thinner than the pair on his back, resembling fins more than wings. The wings themselves were dual toned- clear on the half closest to his body and a transparent royal blue on the outer halves. His ears were shaped like fins and stretched back a few inches, and on each side of his body he had three large gill slits. All he wore was a pair of cut-off jeans, the alterations to his upper body not much allowing for a shirt.

"Can you understand me?" Reeve asked slowly, placing a hand on the teen's shoulder. The fish boy's blue eyes slowly made their way over to Reeve, but didn't really look like they were seeing him. He seemed to be nearly catatonic. Reeve turned back to the soldiers and signaled for them to leave. "Someone go get a doctor for this kid."

"Is he going to be alright?" Tifa asked with concern, stepping in closer to the tank.

"Can't say," Reeve replied. "He looks pretty bad off. I suppose only time will tell."

Barret balled his hand into a fist. "Shinra bastards," he said through clenched teeth. "What the hell did they _do_ to all of these people? It's not humane!"

Nanaki padded up closer to the boy, giving him a gentle nudge with his nose. His eyes slowly trailed off of Reeve down to the big cat in front of him. It seemed he was ever so slowly coming around. "At least he's slightly responsive," Nanaki said, trying to be a little positive.

About a minute later a few doctors arrived and wheeled to boy off to the infirmary on one of their stretchers. "Well, I guess you guys can go on ahead to breakfast. I'll let you know when we're ready to do another tank." The main group went on ahead, but Vincent stayed behind with Reeve.

"Shall I have the key again?" he asked casually. After escorting Mayla to her room last night Vincent had sought out Reeve and returned her room key to him. As he suspected, Reeve had been busy working on paperwork and had forgotten about dinner.

The executive let out a sigh. "I'm afraid that won't be necessary at the moment," he replied to his friend's question. "Mayla's currently in the infirmary. She collapsed in her room last night after you brought her back and hasn't been doing all too well."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

_I hate doctors…_ Mayla was currently lying in a hospital bed with an IV in her arm and several monitors hooked up to her. She would have resisted if she could, but at the time she was too weak to fight them off. She had been ill most of the night, but now she was finally recovering some of her strength. _…. **** this! _She was just about to rip the IV out of her arm when she heard footsteps approaching. Familiar footsteps. _Oh God, don't let him see me like this! _She settled for throwing the blanket over her head and trying to make herself as small as possible.

The footsteps came to a halt next to her bed, and a rustle of leather let her know that their owner had sat down in the chair next to her. She would have pretended to be asleep, but the sound of her racing heart on the monitor was a dead giveaway. _Damn *** piece of equipment. Why must everything work against me?_

"I heard you were ill," a deep voice said from beside her with the slightest hint of amusement. Mayla gave up and lowered the covers off of her head to see Vincent there with a faint smile on his face. His eyes betrayed his worry though. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," she said nonchalantly, sitting back up. "Just a little dizzy spell is all."

"That's not what I heard."

"Well then, you've been misinformed," Mayla replied back casually. She really didn't want anyone worrying over her, but especially not Vincent. It was just something she would have to live with as a cost for her wings.

Vincent paused for a second and studied her face. "May, I saw the security video." He reached out and gently ran a finger down the edge of one of her wings. "They hurt." It wasn't a question.

Although his touch felt good, she retracted her wings ever so slightly at his words. "It's fine. It was just a muscle cramp." She didn't look at him as she said this, but she was well aware of his penetrating gaze on her. _Why do I have to be such a bad liar? _

Vincent was about to speak again when a nurse came by. "Ah, you can sit up now! I take it that you are feeling better then, dear?"

Mayla flushed ever so slightly out of annoyance and embarrassment. "Yes, thank you," she replied, not looking at Vincent. _Great, here I am trying to convince the guy that I was fine and this idiot has to make it sound like I was an invalid! Well, I suppose I __was__ temporarily, but still!_

"Excellent. I'll have the doctor come check you over once more then you can go with this fine young man here."

Mayla had to bite back a snort at that one. Neither of them was exactly _young_.

"I'll step out while the doctor checks on you," Vincent said, both his voice and expression unreadable. "Let me know the verdict."

oooooooooooooooooooooo

While waiting for Mayla, Vincent decided to go check on the fish boy that they had released earlier. When he got there he found Reeve already at the bedside. "He was locked up for 37 years," Reeve said quietly as Vincent approached. "So if he's aged anything like Mayla then he was probably only ten at the time. The doctors say that physically he's perfectly in shape, but mentally… Well, let's just say that it'll be a while before he recovers. If at all."

Said boy was currently propped into a sitting position in his bed, eyes completely glazed over and staring straight ahead. "I'm not sure what all was done to him, but in all honesty I don't think I want to know."

Vincent stayed silent and walked over to the other side of the bed. When he ran a finger down one of the boy's wings as he had done with Mayla, the wing twitched slightly and the boy's gaze slid over to the caped man. "He's not totally unresponsive," Vincent replied, studying the boy's face and gaze. "Give him time. He'll come around." He walked back around the bed and the deep blue eyes trailed his movement. "Reeve," Vincent started slowly, "How many more are there?"

Reeve was silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "At least a hundred."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

True to his word, Vincent was back as soon as Mayla had gotten the ok from the doctor to leave. "Great timing," Mayla said jokingly when she spotted him. "So, shall we go get breakfast? Or have you already eaten?" Vincent shook his head. "Alright, let's go then. Do you think the others will be there?"

"I doubt it," Vincent replied as they walked out of the infirmary. "They went to breakfast a little while ago. We might catch them later."

"Ah, I see," she responded casually, walking slightly ahead of Vincent. As they walked through the floor, Mayla looked over the edge of the railing down at the first floor below. "Rather than taking the elevator, perhaps it would be faster if we just jumped," she said with a smirk on her face, wings fluttering excitedly behind her. "I bet you wouldn't get injured."

"Most likely not," he replied, walking past her. "I'm not jumping though."

"Aw, you're no fun," Mayla teased jokingly, making haste to catch up with the former Turk. He could walk quickly when he wanted to.

A few minutes later the two were down in the cafeteria with their food. "So, Vincent, why exactly are you guys all here right now anyway?" Mayla asked, cutting her egg with a fork. "You never really said."

"We're helping Reeve unload the Shinra experiments they discovered."

"Ah, right. I think he mentioned something to that effect once," she replied, remembering back when Reeve had said that not all of the others were so "tame" as her. "How much help could they need though? I remember plenty of armed men when I was revived." She blushed slightly once more at the memory of it.

"You'd be surprised," Vincent replied, looking up from his food and noticing the color in her cheeks. "Why the blush?"

Her face reddened a little further. "Ah, it's nothing. Just suffered a little, um, embarrassment, at the time."

Vincent arched an eyebrow at this. "Care to expand upon that?"

Before she could respond Reeve arrived at the table with a tray of his own. "Mind if I join you guys?" Both Vincent and Mayla shook their heads, and Mayla's face grew yet redder. She decided to look down at her plate rather than at Reeve. "Did I interrupt something here?"

Vincent shook his head. "How's the boy?" he asked. Mayla glanced up curiously.

"Slightly more responsive since you were there, but still basically catatonic." Reeve chewed thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. "We're opening another one later today. We've got a lot to get through, so it's best to speed things up when possible."

Vincent nodded in understanding. "Take advantage of the injury-less morning."

"Exactly."

Mayla had resumed looking at her plate as she ate, but she had been hanging on to their every word. _So, there are many others. Why do I foresee trouble in the near future?_

_------------------------------------------------_

_R&R!_


End file.
